The Anoka County Elections Department has invited the campaigns of Al Franken and U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman to return Wednesday morning for another try at reviewing uncounted absentee ballots as ordered by the Minnesota Supreme Court. A scheduled meeting between local officials and campaign representatives to review 35 wrongfully rejected absentee ballots broke down Tuesday morning, according to Elections Supervisor Rachel Smith, after Coleman’s camp refused to proceed — unless additional ballots not selected by county staff for counting were included.

Neither campaign had RSVP’d to Smith about the rescheduled meeting as of 3:45 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, Smith told the Minnesota Independent. She said Secretary of State Mark Ritchie’s office helped Dakota County avoid the same scenario at another regional meeting this afternoon — and in her opinion that bodes well for renewed efforts in Anoka. Why didn’t Anoka take the approach of neighboring Sherburne County and simply refuse to review additional ballots proposed by the Coleman camp? “I was fine with doing that,” Smith told MnIndy — but when Coleman’s representative refused to proceed the review was stopped in its tracks.